By Renee Wood
Inspired by Alice in Wonderland, Chum Creek Primary School students are excited about the opportunity to present their school performance.
Student input has led the special production with two senior students, Harper and Sylvie, working together to write the script and coordinate all aspects from sound to costumes.
Harper, Sylvie and other students have also been creating the set design and costumes for the musical.
Harper said after becoming Drama Captain this year, producing a school play was the first thing on her agenda.
“I always wanting to write a school play and I used to write mini scripts, but I never really performed any of them, and my sister and would perform plays for our families,” Harper said.
Sylvie was reading Alice in Wonderland at the time and thought it would be great to share the story through their eyes.
“I thought it was going to be a good idea just because it’s such a universal book and a lot of people know what it is,” Sylvie said.
The grade six students collaborated together with the script writing, dividing up a number of scenes for an adaptation of the traditional story.
Every student in the school of just under 60 students has been given a role on stage.
“We were counting all the characters a lot, making sure everyone would have enough roles,” Harper said.
A school production was delivered last year, however, senior teacher Kate Bilton said the decision to put on another show was due to the two grade sixes.
“They really wanted to work on writing the script and were so passionate about wanting to put on a school play so we decided to do two years in a row,” Ms Bilton said.
Final dress rehearsals are currently underway in preparation for the Wednesday 3 August show.
So far there have been many highlights for the students.
“I like the set design the setting the songs. I really like thinking about what scenes the characters are going to be in,” Harper said.
“I just love watching the classes practice it and just watching it all come together with the props and costumes,” Sylvie said.
The wider community is invited to join Chum Creek Primary School for the performance, which will be held at the Healesville High School Performing Arts Centre 6.30pm Wednesday 3 August.
Tickets are available via the online website: https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing/928869
